New Delhi: US industrial conglomerate General Electric Co said on Monday it had elected Ed Garden, the founding partner and chief investment officer of activist investment firm Trian Fund Management, to its board of directors.

Garden will replace Robert Lane, who is retiring due to health reasons, GE said in a statement.

Nelson Peltz-led Trian, which has a stake of about 1 percent in GE, according to Thomson Reuters data, has been putting pressure on the company to improve its profit performance.

GE in March, after discussions with Trian, set a $2 billion cost-reduction target and linked the bonuses of its senior management to meeting profit-related goals.

"Like other GE shareholders, I am disappointed by the recent performance of GE's stock. But I continue to believe that GE represents an attractive long-term investment opportunity with significant upside," Garden said in a statement.

Garden is also a director at Bank of New York Mellon Corp and Pentair Plc.